Hideki Yukawa

Hideki Yukawa
(1907-1981)

Japanese physicist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1949
for research in the theory of elementary particles.
Graduating from Kyoto Imperial University (now Kyoto University) in
1929, Yukawa became a lecturer there, moving in 1933 to Osaka Imperial
University (now Osaka University), where in 1938 he was awarded his
doctorate. He rejoined Kyoto Imperial University as professor of theoretical
physics (1939-50), held faculty appointments at the Institute for Advanced
Study in Princeton, N.J., U.S., and at Columbia University in New York
City, and became director of the Research Institute for Fundamental
Physics in Kyoto (1953-70).

In 1935, while a lecturer at Osaka Imperial University, Yukawa proposed
a new theory of nuclear forces in which he predicted the existence of
mesons, or particles that have masses between those of the electron
and the proton. The discovery of one type of meson among cosmic rays
by American physicists in 1937 suddenly established Yukawa's fame as
the founder of meson theory, which later became an important part of
nuclear and high-energy physics. After devoting himself to the development
of meson theory, he started work in 1947 on a more comprehensive theory
of elementary particles based on his idea of the so-called nonlocal
field.